- A 20-year-old man was sentenced to 250 days in jail for assaulting an officer after hitting the officer with his car.
- Judge Mettler says the man is lucky to be alive after the officer fired multiple shots toward him.
- Ayala is on an ICE hold and his attorney asked for him to be deported to Mexico as his sentence.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah's 3rd District Judge Amber Mettler told a 20-year-old man he is lucky to be alive during his sentencing on Thursday, and the circumstances in which he was arrested are some of the most dangerous situations she could imagine.
The Utah County Major Crimes Task Force served a search warrant in West Jordan on Aug. 6, 2025, and planned to arrest Huga Fernando Mora Ayala after he left his residence. As he drove away, officers followed closely, boxing him in.
Charging documents said Mora attempted to escape by putting his car in reverse, hitting a deputy's car, then driving forward and hitting a police sergeant, who fired several rounds toward his vehicle. The man continued to flee, but stopped a short time later.
Mora's attorney said he was hit in the scalp by one of the bullets; his windshield had five bullet holes.
Deputy Salt Lake County attorney Kenneth Grigg showed a few seconds of a video showing Mora driving the car into the officer and said it all happened quickly.
"To give him credit, (Mora) tried to go around (the officer), but he went through him and that's why we're here today," Grigg said.
Adult Probation and Parole recommended jail instead of prison as the sentence in the case; but Grigg and the people he works for recommended prison.
"This was an extremely dangerous situation; we're very lucky that the sergeant was not harmed more than a few cuts and scrapes," he said.
Mora pleaded guilty to the charge as part of a plea deal that dismissed charges for drug possession with intent to distribute, a second-degree felony, and failing to stop for police, a third-degree felony.
Mettler sentenced Mora to one to 15 years in prison for assault on a police officer, a second-degree felony, but suspended that sentence, instead ordering him to serve 250 days in jail — with credit for the 156 he has already served — and spend four years on probation.
The judge told him that if he is not deported by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement following his jail sentence, or if he returns to the country legally, he should check in with the court to adjust the terms of his probation and address a warrant she issued.
Mora's attorney, Zachary Ascherl, asked for deportation to be the sentence. He said his client had no previous criminal history in the U.S. and has family and work waiting for him in Mexico.
"He would like the court to know that he didn't intend to injure the officer here, but he acknowledges that he was driving recklessly, and that he was fearing for his own safety," Ascherl said.
Mora made similar comments through an interpreter, saying he did not intend to harm any officers. He told the judge he knows he is lucky to have survived.
